


An Ace in the Fog

by K_Popsicle



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Fae & Fairies, Fantasy, Fog, Gen, Mythical Beings & Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-06 06:35:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21222176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/K_Popsicle/pseuds/K_Popsicle
Summary: Two fae, one Ace, and no doctor lost in the fog.





	An Ace in the Fog

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kay_obsessive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_obsessive/gifts).

There’s a cold fog thick in the air that not even her bomber jacket’s keeping at bay.

“Professor!” She shouts into the eerie silence, “Where did you go?” But there’s no answer, only the space he had been in before the fog had swallowed him.

Ace screws her courage down, determined to fight the world, and keeps going.

The TARDIS had stalled, come to a choking stop beside a generic English river. The Doctor had rattled off something about fresh air, clean rivers and gave a date range that was longer than humans had been on earth.

“Are there dinosaurs?” She’d asked excited but with a reasonable hint of concern because she’d seen their skeletons and she only had one bag of Nitro-9 on her. He’d hummed a non-response, but when a rat had run across their path he’d pointed with the end of his umbrella and said there were no dinosaurs. Ace was disappointed.

But then the fog had rolled in, and then the doctor had disappeared leaving her alone.

She struggles up the hill they’d been aiming for and finds herself in a clearing with two figures obscured by the fog. She is suspicious for obvious reasons, but approaches carefully.

“Hello,” she greats, “I don’t suppose you’ve seen a man with a straw hat, and an umbrella with a question mark on the end?” They do not answer and her steps slow because that can’t be good. But she didn’t get where she is by turning tail and running from who knows what, so she keeps going. “I don’t suppose you’re here to help, are you?” She snarks ready for a fight.

“We are not here to harm.” A woman’s voice says and the fog parts enough for Ace to see her. She’s young, tall, her eyes are pure white, and she wears a cloak of raven feathers, and Ace knows she’s not human. She steps closer still.

“Yeah? Then where’s my friend?” She asks, eyeing the figure beside the raven lady.

“He is safe.” The woman says. “We could not confine a creature of such power for long.”

“Darn right.” Ace snaps, skittish from the adrenaline and infinitely proud of the professor.

“We will return him.” The other lady as the fog parts for her, the second woman is just as tall but draped in feathers of white and light brown.

“Yeah? When?” She insists.

“We will bring him back to you.” The first lady says.

“But first you must listen.” The second says.

Ace feels bold, brave when she should be cowed, so she steps up to them, and sits on the ground cross legged.

“Alright,” she agrees, “what do you have for me?”

They kneel before her, elegant and graceful, and they tell her secrets. Secrets that lock up parts of her heart and loosen others. Secrets that change her world all over again.

“Ace!” The Doctor clicks in front of her face and Ace flinches back, sees him and grins.

“How long was I here?” She asks because her legs feel like they’ve fallen asleep and she stumbles as she tries to stand. The Doctor holds her steady and helps brush the leafs off her stockings.

“A few hours. Our gracious hosts apologised for the delay and the TARDIS should be working again.” He sounds bemused and not at all miffed.

“Did you help them?” She clings to his arm as he starts the walk back the way they’d come.

“Well, I showed them how to open the door. Apparently, they forgot. Fae would forget their own names if they thought they had no use for them.”

“But never a grudge.” Ace agreed because she could remember those stories.

“Or a debt.” The Doctor added and there was something to that tone but Ace didn’t delve in, because he kept his own secrets just as she did. Instead she looped her arm around his own and held tight feeling brave and so much wise for a few very important secrets.


End file.
